Friends I had read Swamiji’s marathan work Satyarth Prakash or Light of Truth a year ago. While his thoughts on Vedic Dharam were very enlightening I had till recently never read the chapter on Christianity. Having done so recently decided to share excerpts.

“Our sole aim in writing this chapter is to further the cause of truth and eradicate error, and not to injure the feelings of others or do them harm or bring false charges against them. After going through this chapter all our readers will know what kind of book bible is, and what its doctrine teaches. It will also make it easy to understand the tenets of Christianity and make a comparative study of it. It will also help people to discriminate between right and wrong, desirable and undesirable conduct, and to embrace & practice truth & virtue, to reject error and shun vice. It behoves a man to study the sacred books of all religions before they publish their opinions for or against them”.

In this chapter C stands for author. What is in bold at the beginning of the para is a title for its contents. Number like 1,2,3,60 stand for para numbers as they appear in the book. The piece has excerpts, which is why the para numbers are not continuous. The chapters are four -
 1. Genesis (1 to 36)     - Old Testament.
 2. Exodus (37 to 59)    - Old Testament.
 3. St Mathew (60-86)    - New Testament.
 4. St John (92-130)    - New Testament.

GENESIS     

1. Creation - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (I. 1, 2.)

C. - What do you call the beginning?

Christian. - The first creation of the world.

C. - Is this the first creation? Was the world never created before?

Ch.- We do not know whether it was created before or not. God alone knows that.

C. - When you do not know that, why should you believe in this book (i.e., the Bible) which cannot enlighten you on these points and pinning your faith to it, preach it to others and thereby ensnare them into this religion which is so full of doubts. Why don’t you embrace the Vedic religion, which is free from all doubts and enlightens one on all points? When you do not understand the world created by God-His handiwork, how can you then know God?

C. - What do you understand by the term heaven?

Ch.- The empty space and what is above.

C. - How was this empty space created? Besides, it is all pervading and very subtle and uniform both above and below Did space exist or not before the heaven was created? If it did not, wherein did God, the cause of the universe, and the souls live? Nothing can exist without space, but your Bible says that it was created; hence this statement can never be true. Is God inharmonious? Do His knowledge and works lack harmony, or is He as well as His knowledge and works harmonious?

Ch.- Harmonious.

C. - Why is it then recorded here that the earth created by God was misshapen or without form.

Ch.- The term without form means uneven, i.e., the earth was not then even.

C. - Who made it even then? Is it not even now uneven? God’s work can never lack harmony or be ill shapen (without form). He being All-knowing. His works are always free from error or faults but the Bible teaches that the earth created by God was without form; hence this book can never be the work of God. First tell us pray what you think the Spirit of God is.

Ch.- He is a Conscious Being.

C. - He is Formless or embodied, All-pervading or localized?

Ch.- He is Formless, Conscious and All-pervading but. He is more particularly present in such places as the mount Sinai and the fourth heaven.

C. - If He be formless who could have then seen Him? What is All-pervading could not move on the face of the waters. Well! Where was God when His Spirit was ‘moving upon the face of waters? It only (goes to) show, that His body must have been in some other place or He must have let a piece of His Spirit move ‘on the face of the waters’, but in that case He could never be All-pervading and All-knowing and consequently could not create, sustain and support the world, reduce to its elementary condition, nor could He award the souls just reward or punishment for their deeds-good or bad-, because one who is localized or circumscribed by nature must have his powers and actions also limited. Such being the case He can never be God but He has been described in the Vedas, as All-pervading, possessed of Infinite nature, attributes and powers, Truly Conscious and All-blissful, Eternal, Holy, All-wise and Free by nature, Beginningless and Endless, and so on. Faith in such a God alone will save you.

2. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. (I. 3, 4.)

C. - Was the deed inert light able to hear what God said? If so, why cannot the sun, the lamp and the light of fire hear us? The light is dead and inert and therefore cannot hear anyone. Did God only, after he had seen the light, know that the light was good? It appears that He did not know that beforehand. Had he known it beforehand, he would not have waited till he had seen it to pronounce it good. If he did not know it beforehand he could not have been God. Hence the Bible is not the Word of God, nor is God mentioned in it an Omniscient Being.

3. Heaven - And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters, which were under the firmament from the waters, which were above the firmament: and it was so. and God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. (I. 6, 7, 8.)

C. - Did the firmament and the waters also hear what God said? Had there been no akasha (The word firmament is translated into Akasha in the Sanskrit and Bhasha versions of the Bible. Now Akasha is held by Sanskrit philosophers to be All-pervading subtle ether like substance which fills all things in the universe hence this objection) in water, where would it have existed? The creation of the heaven is mentioned in the first verse (of Genesis), it was useless then to create it again. If akasha be the Heaven it would also be every where. It is useless then to say that the heaven is situated somewhere above. How could there be the morning and the evening when the sun had not yet been created? The succeeding verses also treat of such impossible things.

4. Image of God - And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them. (I. 26, 27, 28.)

C. - If God made man in his own image, why is not man then All-holy, All-knowledge and All-bliss, etc., like God in nature? This shows that man was not made in the image of God. Now man was created, and being in the image of God and after His likeness it follows as a natural consequence that His nature is also creatable hence he cannot be eternal. Besides, what did He create the man out of?

Ch.- Out of the dust (of the ground).

C. - What did He create the dust out of?

Ch.- Out of his power.

Ch.- Is his power beginningless or has it a beginning?

Ch.- It is beginningless.

C. - It is clear that His power being beginningless, the cause of the (material) world is also beginningless. Why do you, then, believe that something came out of nothing?
Ch.- Nothing but God existed before the beginning of creation.

C. - Where did this world then come from?

Is the power of God a substance or an attribute? If it be a substance, there was then something besides God (before the creation of the world). On the other hand, if it be an attribute, as no substance can come out of an attribute (the world could not have been produced out of it), as for instance, fire cannot proceed from light nor water from fluidity. Had God been the Material cause of the World, the latter would have possessed all the attributes, nature, and characteristics of God but such being not the case, it is certain that it was not produced out of God but out of the Material cause the primordial matter in atomic condition. It behoves you therefore to believe that god is the Efficient Cause of the Universe as is recorded in the Vedas and other true Shastras If, as held by the Christians, Adam’s inward nature be that of the soul and his outward (appearance) that of man, why is not God’s nature the same, because since Adam was made in the image of God the latter must necessarily be like Adam.

5. Creation of Man - And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (II. 7, 8, 9.)

C. - When God planted the garden at Eden and placed Adam therein did not He know then that he would have turn Him out of it?

Since God formed Adam of the dust of the ground, he was not made in the image of God; otherwise, God also must have been made of the dust. When God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, was that breath God Himself or something else? If it was something different, man was not made in the image of God, but if it was so Adam and God are alike and being alike God also like man becomes subject to birth and death, growth and decay, hunger and thirst. How can then such a being be called God? For this reason this statement recorded in the Old Testament does not appear to be right, nor can therefore, this book is the Word of God.

6. Making of Woman - And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (II. 21, 22.)

C. - When God made man out of the dust, why did He not make his wife out of the same material? If He made his wife out of a bone, why did He not make him as well out of the same? Now if woman was named so because she was taken out of Man, the word man should also have been derived from the word Woman as he is born of woman. They should also love each other. A wife should love her husband as a man loves his wife. Mark ye scholars! How wonderfully shines the beautiful philosophy of the (Biblical God)! If Woman was made of one rib taken out of Man, why are not all men short of one rib? Besides there ought to be only one rib in the body of a woman as she was made out of one rib. Could not God have made Woman of the same material as He had used in the creation of the Universe? It is clear therefore, that the teachings of the bible on the subject of creation are opposed to the Laws of Nature.

12. Increasing population, Sin, Vedic God - And daughters were born unto them. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to the, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of this earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repented me that I have made them. (VI.1-7).

C. - Will the Christians tell us who are the sons of God and who are his wife, mother-in-law, father0in-law, brother-in-law, and other relations? His sons having been married to the daughters of men God became related to them and the children born out of these marriages were his grandchildren. Can such things be true of God? Can they find place in His book? It appears that the authors of the Bible were savages who had not the least idea of the true God. He that is not Omniscient not knows the future is not God but a human being. Did He not before he created the world know that men would turn wicked?

The feelings of grief and repentance after doing something wrong through error of judgment can be attributed only to the Christian God since He is neither well versed in learning not a yogi with perfect control over his passions and feelings or He would have overcome His great grief and sorrow with the aid of mental equilibrium and wisdom.

Had even birds and animals become wicked, that He wanted to destroy them all? Surely He is not All-knowing God; else He would not have been so destitute of sense. It is clear that neither he is God nor is the Bible the Word of God. Had the Christians believed and were they even now to believe in the Vedic God Who is free from all sin, pain, grief and sorrow, and is the embodiment of all existence, consciousness and bliss, they would have realized and will even now realize the true aim of human life.

14. Borrowed from Vedas - And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord: and took of every clean beast, and every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for imaginations of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smile any more everything living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (VIII. 20, 21, 22.)

C. - The mention of the building of an altar and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar clearly shows that there things have been borrowed by the Bible from the Vedas. Has God even got a nose wherewith he “smelt a sweet savor”? Is not the God of the Christians so like a man in the finiteness of his powers, knowledge and capacity that something he curses, then he repents of it, again he says he will not cruse the ground any more. He has cursed before, and he will curse again. First He destroyed all living creatures, now he says, he will never do so again. All these things are like the doings of children not of God nor even of an educated man for even he is true to word and keeps his pledges.

15. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. (IX. 1, 3, 4.)

C. - Is not the God of the Christians destitute of mercy, since he helps some to enjoy at the expense of the lives of others? Are not the parents, who cause one of their children to be killed in order to feed the other, considered most sinful? The same is true in this case since all living creatures are like children to God. The Christian God (in their case) is more like a butcher. It is this that has made men so hard-hearted and cruel towards other sentient creatures. Why is not the Christian God sinful since he is destitute of tenderness of feeling?

17. Abraham - He said unto Serai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Says, I pray thee thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee. (XII. 11 – 13.)

C. - Now reader mark! This Abraham, who is looked upon as a great prophet both by the Christians and the Mohammedans alike, tells lies and does such other wicked deeds. How can such people find the way to rule happiness and knowledge whose prophets were men of such a low character?

18. Circumcision - And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou, and thy seed, after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man-child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin: and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. (XVII. 9 – 14.)

C. - Now look and at the most unnatural command of God. Had He approved of circumcision? He would not have made the foreskin at all in the beginning of creation. It serves to protect the (delicate) structure) beneath just as the eyelids protect the eyeball. This structure is so extremely delicate that the bite of an ant, or the most insignificant hurt will cause great deal of pain if there were no foreskin. It also serves, to prevent the soiling of clothes after micturition. These are a few of its uses. Hence it is wrong to circumcise it. Why don’t the Christians obey this commandment now? This was an everlasting and not a temporary covenant. Besides, Christ’s testimony as to the truth of the Law in the words “one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law” will turn out to be false.

20. Bread + Calf - And the Lord, appeared unto him in the plaints of Mamre and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lift up his eyes and looked and, lo, three men stood by him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself towards the ground. And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on; for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of the fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter and milk and the calf, which he had dressed, and set it before them; and the calf, which he had dresses, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. (XVIII. 2 – 8.)

C. - Now why should they, who’s God eats calf’s flesh, spare cows, calves and other animals? He that has no compassion (on dumb animals) and enjoys flesh eating cannot be God. He can only be a man who feels no scruples in injuring other sentient creatures for his gratification. We are not told who the other two men (besides God) were. It appears that there was a party of savages whose leader is styled God in the Bible. It is such things (as flesh-eating, etc.,) that prevent wise men from accepting this book as the Word of God and its God as the true God.

23. Having Sex with daughters - Come, let us make out father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the first born went in, and lay with the father; let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. (XIX. 32-34, 36).

C. - The vices of the Christians and others who are addicted to drink-the wicked drink that has degraded men and women so much that even a father and his daughters have not escaped from being guilty of misconducting themselves with each other-know no bounds. Good people, therefore, should not even think of drinking wine.

26. All knowing God! - And it came to pass after things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of …. And bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham: Lay out thing hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto hi: for now I know that thou fearest God. (XXII. 1, 2 and 9-12.)

C. - Now it is quite clear that the Biblical God possesses finite knowledge and that He is not Omniscient. Abraham too was simpleton, else he would not have acted in the way he did. Had the Biblical God been an Omniscient Being. He would have been able to find out all about the firmness of Abraham’s faith through His Omniscience. It is certain then that the God of the Christians is not an All-knowing God.

27. Burying Dead - In the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead….. but that thou mayest bury the dead. (XXIII. 6.)

C. - The burial of the dead is highly injurious to the (health of the inhabitants of the) world, because decomposition of dead bodies sets in and pollutes the air which in its turn gives rise to disease.

Ch.- Even cremation gives rise of foul smell.

C. - Yes a little, if cremation be not conducted properly, but nothing compared with what takes place in other methods, such as the burial. but if cremation be conducted in accordance with what has been prescribed in the Vedas, no pollution of the air results.

The Vedic method of cremation is, in brief, as follows: -

Let a Vedi, 7 ½ feet long, 5 ¼ feet broad and 4 ½ feet deep, be dug in the ground. The walls should slope in such a manner that breadth of the Vedi at the bottom is one-half of that at the top, and let sufficient quantity of wood of such trees, as Butea Fondoea as well as sandal wood (at least 40 1bs.) be piled in the Vedi and the dead body placed on it. let the same kind of wood be put on its top till it is one foot short of the mouth of Vedi. Let sufficient amount of camphor, agar, tagar be also scattered here and there in the pile of wood. now let fire be set to the pile and oblations of clarified butter, whole amount of which should weigh as much as the weight of the dead body, and to which musk, at the rate of 1 grain and saffron, at the rate of 8 grains, per pound of ghee, has been added, be poured over it. this mode of cremation causes no full smell. Even this is called Antyeshthi, Narmedha, Purushmedha Yajna. However poor the deceased be, in no case should less than 40 1bs. of ghee be used in cremating the body, whether that quantity of ghee obtained by begging or as gift from his caste-people or from the Government, if need be, but the body should always be cremated only in the above-described manner. But if the ghee and other materials (mentioned above) could not be procured in any way, mere cremation with wood alone is far better than burial. Millions of dead bodies can be cremated on a piece of ground having an area of 20 ¼ sq. yards or even in one Vedi. Nor is the soil polluted as in burial. The sight of graves is also the cause of fear to the timid. Hence, burial and other methods of disposal of the dead are altogether reprehensible.

31. Idol-Worship - And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. and he called the name of that place Beth-el : And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house. (XXVIII. 18, 19 and 22.)

C. - Now mark! Did not they act like savages in worshipping stones and causing others to do the same. Now this place is called Holy Bathel by the Mohammadans. Is that stone alone the house of God and does He reside in that stone alone? Bravo Christians! You are indeed great idolaters!

32. And God remembered Rachel and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bore a son; and said God hath taken away my reproach. (XXX. 22 23.)

C. - Well done! O Christian God! You are indeed a great surgeon! What were the instruments or medicines with which you opened women’s wombs, or was all this done blindly?

36. Niyoga - And Er, Judah’s first- born, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that be spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: Wherefore, he slew him also. (XXXVII, 7-10.)

C. - Now, it must be clear to all that these are the doings of man, not of God. Onan entered into Niyoga with Er’s wife why did God slay him? Why did not He guide his understanding? (This conclusively proves that Niyoga was in vogue in all countries in ancient times).